"Working with I2C is often a hassle, with many things going on all at once that need to sync up just right in order to work at all, and this device allows the user to set up I2C devices in a fraction of the time."

"It's cool, too, because it shows the voltage and it also shows the current consumption that's flowing through it. And the screen, I love it, it actually has two small little waveforms that show what's going on."

I²CDriver is an easy-to-use, open source tool for controlling I²C devices.
It works with Windows, Mac, and Linux, and has a built-in color screen
that shows a live “dashboard” of all the I²C activity.
It uses a standard FTDI USB serial chip to talk to the PC, so no special
drivers need to be installed.
The board includes a separate 3.3 V supply with voltage and current
monitoring.

I²C is Everywhere

It’s in every phone, in your embedded electronics,
in every microcontroller, Raspberry Pi, and PC motherboard. It’s a mature
technology - still going strong after 36 years.
Because it’s everywhere, I²C is used by everyone from novices to embedded
designers.
But the common element of everyone’s I²C experience is struggle.
Instead of being easy, I²C very often feels really difficult.
Because there are so many ways for I²C to go wrong, things rarely “just
work” and instead involve some painful debugging.

I²CDriver Makes I²C Much More Friendly

While other I²C tools might offer a couple of LEDs, I²CDriver has a clear
logic-analyzer display of the signal lines plus a graphical decoding of
the I²C traffic.

The I²C traffic decoder

In addition, it continuously displays an address map of all attached I²C
devices,
so as you connect a device, it lights up on the map. You’ll never have to ask “is
this thing even switched on?” again.

The heat map shows all 7-bit I²C addresses

The current and voltage monitoring let you catch electrical problems
early. The included color-coded wires make hookup a cinch; no pinout
diagram is required. It includes a separate 3.3 V supply for your devices, a
high-side current meter, and programmable pullup resistors for both I²C
lines.

There are three I²C ports, so you can hook up multiple devices without any
fuss.

I²CDriver comes with free (as in freedom) software to control it from:

a GUI

the command-line

C and C++ using a single source file

Python 2 and 3, using a module

Do More With I²CDriver

I²CDriver driving three 8x8 LED modules

By controlling I²C hardware using the PC tools you’re most comfortable
with, you can get devices
doing what you want in a fraction of the development time. Calibrating
devices like accelerometers, magnetometers, and gyroscopes is much simpler
and faster when done directly on the PC through I²CDriver.

I²CDriver ships with Python examples using small groups of I²C devices to
make something useful.

Watch the Whole Network

As well a a live decode of the traffic,
the built in display shows a heatmap of all active network nodes.
So in an I²C network with multiple devices, you can see at a glance which
ones are the most active.

See what I²C is Doing Instantly

When an I²CDriver is connected to an existing I²C bus, it “snoops” the
traffic and displays it on the screen.
This provides an excellent tool for debugging I²C issues, because you can
listen in on the conversation as it happens.

Capture I²C Traffic to Your PC

I²CDriver can dump all I²C traffic back to the PC.
I²CDriver’s capture mode reliably records every bit to an exhaustive
time-stamped log.
This is really helpful for debug, analysis, and reverse-engineering.
Supported formats include text, CSV, and VCD.

Features

Open hardware: the design, firmware and all tools are under BSD license

Specifications

Maximum power out current: up to 470 mA

Device current: up to 25 mA

Dimensions: 61 mm x 49 mm x 6 mm

Computer interface: USB 2.0, micro USB connector

Modules and Carriers

Each module is 18 mm x 18 mm with castellated connectors for power and I²C.
You can connect headers to them directly, incorporate them in your own designs,
or solder onto carrier boards provided in the Expert and Gold pledge levels.
These boards hold three modules each so they are all on a single I²C bus.
In a few seconds you can combine modules for a quick prototype.

Comparisons

Tool

Open hardware / software

Indicators or display

Additional sensors

No driver install

Host software

Price (USD)

I²CDriver

Yes

Graphic protocol analyzer

Bus, voltage, current, temperature

Yes

GUI, command-line, Python, C/C++, and flashrom

$29

Totalphase Aardvark

No

None

None

No

Command-line, Python, C/C++

$300

FTDI MPSSE cable

No

None

None

No

C/C++

$27.30

Bus Pirate

Yes

Power LEDs

ADC input

Yes

Command-line. Python, flashrom

$27.15

Pledge Packages

The “Core” package is an I²CDriver with three cable sets.

The “Expert” package is an I²CDriver with hookup wires and 16 I²C
modules, all designed and built for this campaign:

1 x 512 Kbit EEPROM

1 x 3D compass

1 x analog knob

1 x IR remote and receiver

2 x precision temperature sensor

2 x accelerometer

2 x real-time clock/calendar

2 x 2-digit 7-segment red LED

2 x color RGB LED

2 x alarm beeper

plus three carrier PCBs for permanently mounting the modules.

The “Gold” package includes 20 I²C modules:

2 x 512 Kbit EEPROM

2 x 3D compass

2 x analog knob

2 x IR remote and receiver

2 x precision temperature sensor

2 x accelerometer

2 x real-time clock/calendar

2 x 2-digit 7-segment red LED

2 x color RGB LED

2 x alarm beeper

plus four carrier PCBs for permanently mounting the modules.

Manufacturing Plan

PCB manufacture is being handled by
Boktech
in Shenzhen, who did such a
great job on SPIDriver.
We’re doing the final calibration, assembly, and testing of every unit here
in Pescadero, USA.

Fulfillment Schedule

Immediately after the campaign closes, I’ll be placing orders with the
manufacturers. We estimate that we’ll have the first batch of rewards
tested and shipped by February 2019.

Production and Risks

The designs have been prototyped through multiple iterations. The firmware
has been tested with fanatical thoroughness. This mitigates a lot of risk.
The remaining risk is in manufacturing execution:

There is some risk that the PCBs could be mis-manufactured

There is some risk that component availability is lower than needed at
the time of procurement, in particular the LCD screen units

These are generally the same issues that may occur with any PCBA
fabrication.